Woodhoopoes (Phoeniculidae)
Black-billed Woodhoopoe (Phoeniculus somaliensis) - HBW 6, p. 430
French: Irrisor à bec noir
German: Schwarzschnabel-Baumhopf
Spanish: Abubilla-arbórea Piquinegra
Taxonomy: Irrisor somaliensis Ogilvie-Grant, 1901, Fer Libah, Ogaden, Ethiopia.
Generally considered to form a superspecies with P. purpureus and P. damarensis. All three sometimes treated as conspecific, which may be a more realistic treatment; more study needed. Race abyssinicus has been thought to be a hybrid of race neglectus and P. purpureus niloticus, but the two species are said to occur sympatrically without apparently interbreeding in parts of S Ethiopia and N Kenya. Three subspecies recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution:
- abyssinicus (Neumann, 1903) - N Ethiopia and Eritrea.
- neglectus (Neumann, 1905) - C Ethiopia.
- somaliensis (Ogilvie-Grant, 1901) - SE Ethiopia, W Somalia and NE Kenya.
- Least Concern
- No sound recordings available yet
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